Etymologically
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hospitium

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [hɔsˈpɪ.ti.ũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [osˈpit.t͡si.um][1]

Forms

hospitium n (genitive hospitiī or hospitī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from hospes “host, guest” with the suffix -ium.[2][1][3] Isidore wrongly calls it a Greek word.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of the entertainment of guests.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant hospitality, the entertainment of guests, and in Virgil welcome.[2] It meant the lasting bond between host and guest, which Cicero sets beside friendship, and a similar bond between states or towns and an influential private person.[2][5] From Cicero it meant a place to stay, guest quarters, in Juvenal hired lodgings, and in Apuleius one's home.[2] Figuratively it was any temporary stopping place, even the grave.[2] Döderlein explains that a dēversōrium is any lodging on a journey, a hospitium an inn for strangers.[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant hospice, asylum, inn, hospitality.[7] In Medieval Latin it meant the right of compulsory lodging, a monastery's hospital, and a dwelling.[8] French hospice gave English hospice in 1818, a rest house for travellers.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of hospitality.[2][4]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it of a bond between states and persons.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of guest quarters.[2][4]
  • 1818 – English hospice is recorded, through French.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Hospitality, the entertainment of guests; welcome.[2]
  2. The bond between host and guest; a similar bond between communities and a person.[2]
  3. Guest quarters; lodgings, an inn; a home.[2][6]
  4. Any temporary stopping place.[2]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The right of lodging; a monastic hospital.[8]

Word family

  • hospitiolum

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com